New Wheels

I picked up some new wheels a few weeks back and have delayed the review until I had at least given them a good run in.  For a few years I have always maintained that Asics were the best for me and my running gait as the fit was always really great and the quality of the shoe was always high.  So with all the hype about bare foot running I decided to replace my primary shoes with a new barefoot model to try for a few weeks and see how I got on.

I generally keep two pairs of shoes, a primary pair for work where I do most of my running and a secondary pair for home that are generally trail shoes for out in the forest.  After a bit of research and having decided not to blow the bank on what was really an experiment I decided on the New Balance 110 MT barefoot trail shoe.  The shoes selling points were the weight, price and the fact that it combined trail potential with barefoot running.

The shoes are really light compared to my last pair of Asics and very snugly fitted ( I had to size up).  I haven't weighed them but they are noticeably lighter and feel more like socks than shoes.  They retail at around £40 in the UK so they were a lot cheaper than rival models and are the only model that I had seen in the price band that looked like true trail shoes.  Although I didn't want to admit it I also was swayed by the aesthetics as they look pretty cool too.

I have now completed around 100 miles in the shoes and I've been really impressed.  My first venture into barefoot has seen a slight change in gait with more emphasis on the mid foot striking rather than on the heel. This, combined with the reduced weight, has seen some noticeable speed increases in my times.  I have gone from around 8 1/2 minutes  to around 8 minutes a mile for my usual run of around 6 miles.  I've had no blisters or any other irritations in my knees or ankles so far and overall I have been really impressed.  I've been out to 9 miles with them and to be honest I'm not sure I am ready to take them on the longer runs so I can only really give them a full recommendation based on my 6-8 mile distance runs.

The other selling point I failed to mention is that they are waterproof but with all the hot weather lately I haven't had the chance to test this which is pretty unbelievable living in Britain.